Random anonymous shitposting to literally make history

[skiddlez]

In my usual boredom-induced web combing I ran into something that I thought I'd share because it seems like nobody else has noticed. I searched to see if anyone else on the internet was talking about this and it appears nobody is, so here goes: the United States Library of Congress is archiving shitposts from 4chan. No, seriously. Go to their web culture portal found here and you can see a variety of shit they're archiving, a decent amount of it you probably recognize. On page 2 you'll notice the "sfw" part of 4chan (4channel) is being archived. There have been jokes on 4chan since way back in the day that one day in the future historians will be researching their shitposts for actual academic knowledge, but now it would appear that it has actually come true. The boards (and even some entire threads) are being archived. For example, here's an archive of /a/ from 2019: https://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20190605214720/http://boards.4channel.org/a/

I've clicked on threads and so far all of them work. There's some pretty hilarious shit that's forever being preserved by the US government, and I want to try to find some of the funniest shit that the Library of Congress is deeming worthy to be archived for future historians to gawk at.

Post your most amusing finds. Easy mode for finding funny shit is going to be /a/, /v/, /tv/, and especially /mlp/.

 

[Death Grip]

What else are they archiving is my initial response to this.
Are they saving our phone calls and our emails?
I had some seriously weird security questions when I had to do something tax related recently. They had scary amounts of info about who I am and what I have done previously.

 

[Dutch Courage]

If they start saving posts from the 'farms for posterity, in some hollowed-out mountain designed to withstand the apocalypse, I might have to put on a clean shirt.

 

[LullerDerbyRollin]

If they start saving posts from the 'farms for posterity, in some hollowed-out mountain designed to withstand the apocalypse, I might have to put on a clean shirt.

They might, but not the Library of Congress, but we're easily useful enough certain other parts.

 

[HarveyMCR]

They might, but not the Library of Congress, but we're easily useful enough certain other parts.

Hot take but I genuinely hope they archive us. As trash as certain users can be, we’ve documented a whole lot of information about a significant portion of the internet. When historians in a 100 years want to look at what the 2020 internet was like, I feel like threads on threads documenting the biggest influencers/youtubers/cows will be leagues more informative than just like the top 10 YouTube videos of the year or some headlines talking about twitch streamers

 

[LullerDerbyRollin]

Hot take but I genuinely hope they archive us. As trash as certain users can be, we’ve documented a whole lot of information about a significant portion of the internet. When historians in a 100 years want to look at what the 2020 internet was like, I feel like threads on threads documenting the biggest influencers/youtubers/cows will be leagues more informative than just like the top 10 YouTube videos of the year or some headlines talking about twitch streamers

We're also immediately useful to FBI, CIA, DHS and NSA, because we handle large public sectors of the net for them and with amazingly good results and consistency. We also can just die or fade away with no blood on their hands. Like, thinking of the future is cool and all, but I'm trying to point out that it's not as nice a thought, because it's happening right now.

 

[SphinxItOver]

I'm sure this well end up going the way TLOC attempt to archive twitter did.

 

[Temporal Refugee]

It's a shame this didn't happen sooner. There are much more historically significant periods with posts that have been lost time time, save for a few highlights scattered across the web on mirrors that will likely degrade and die off over time.

Imagine having a complete archive of /b/ from 2003-2008, or of /pol/ from 2014-2016, for example. I'd imagine having those encased in digital amber could offer a hell of a lot of context and raw unfiltered commentary for people studying internet culture a hundred years from now.

 

[Milkis]

A hundred years from now, they will know that for me, it's the McChicken, the best fast food sandwich

 

[TaterBot]

I had some seriously weird security questions when I had to do something tax related recently. They had scary amounts of info about who I am and what I have done previously.

The Library of Congress?

 

[Death Grip]

No I am in the nuke it now country.